Seeing Red
by sodapoppp
Summary: Koren is the greatest gift - or curse - the Altenan Kingdom has ever recieved. Ch 4: Disembodied Voices Equal BAD. Koren is self-absorbed in teenage angst. Angela is self-absorbed period. And Queen Valda is addicted to crack! Um, sort of.
1. Ice Blue Eyes

Seeing Red

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Author's Notes: My current obsession as of now is a bishie goth-like Koren and Heath. But Koren wins, because he's, at least in my warped imagination, a bishie goth. Come on now. Bishie goth. Do I really have to say any more? So, voila. The life story of Koren. This is unlike all of my other fics – I'm really piling heavy on the angst here. (Woot! Angst!) All of my other stuff is crap meshed in with fluff and cheesy romance and lame attempts at comedy. I bet I'll try to put humor in here, even though this is an angst fic. I don't care, I just will. That's how my mind works.

Disclaimers: I do not own Koren or any of the game Seiken Densetsu 3. However, I DO own bishie goth Koren… okay, I don't own that either. *sob*

_I am heaven sent. Don't you dare forget. I am all you've ever wanted._

_What all the other boys all promised. Sorry I told. _

_I just needed you to know. I think in decimals and dollars. _

_I am the cause to all your problems. Shelter from cold._

_We're never alone. Coordinate brain and mouth. _

_Then ask me what it's like to have myself so figured out. _

_I wish I knew._

- (Brand New) Deja Entendu… "Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't"

Chapter 1: Ice Blue Eyes

(A/N: Yes, I know that's a Rurouni Kenshin song. Gosh, now I'm daydreaming about a bishie goth Aoshi. *drools*)

            Jose ran his fingers through his thick black hair, streaked with stray grey locks. 

"I'm getting too old for this," he muttered to himself as he watched the Altenan army, mostly consisting of females, combating eachother in a training session. Every season, the military was renewed with fresh young feminine faces, eager to learn more advanced magic than common school books, eager to serve their beautiful, world-renowned Queen to whom they were taught since birth to devote their lives to. He watched one of the youngest girls, Rena, an innocent little thing with unusual pale, pale blonde hair and tan skin (she looked to be part mountain folk, or perhaps her father was a desert man) fall down to her rump as a weak 'Holy Ball' just barely hit her on the stomach. Jose didn't think she would be injured from such a poorly cast spell, but then again, Rena looked to be a fragile type, and rolled on the ground clutching her abdomen. 

    "Stop, stop!" Jose roared in the midst of the havoc and flurry of magic. The shouting and yelling immediately stopped, and the crowds of barely teenaged girls parted like a Red Sea as the respected Jose of Altena made his way towards Rena. 

 "Do you think you can stand?" He said, using his 'kindly old man' voice. Rena nodded, biting her lip with tear-stained eyes as she was helped up by two other girls. He looked at her blotchy, embarrassed face sympathetically and patted her on the shoulder.

 "Normally, I would use a healing spell for something like this, but it doesn't look too serious. We'll have the nurse check up on you." Jose said. His words didn't seem to mean much to her, but he added, "Don't worry. Many people get injured in some way or another on the first day. Call yourself lucky; it's a grueling first day."

  The soldiers all laughed, and this seemed to ease some of Rena's humiliation. 

"I – I won't get sent home?" Rena asked with a tremulous voice anxiously.

Jose smiled in amusement. "Of course not."

 Supported by her arms around the two girls' shoulders (Marie and Rowena) she walked out of the room. Minutes later, the room was back to its normal first day chaos. Jose slowly eased himself back into his chair ("Damn knees", he muttered to himself as the old bones creaked) and kept watching, making sure to yell out a suggestion or the occasional criticism or encouragement. He fell back into a sort of stupor, where he was vaguely wandering in a shadowed sea of senility and stubborn determination not to accept old age while hearing the young women yell out primary spells they learned in school.

     "Joseph! Sir Joseph!" 

 He awoke with a start and turned his head with some annoyance at the young voice. However, his frown instantly lighted into a half-smile as he saw his young (very young) apprentice, Victor Frell, run along the narrow cobblestone path and trip occasionally on the loose stones.

  "What is it, Victor? And remember, it is **Jose." Jose reprimanded him, but not too sternly. **

 The gangly young boy flushed but nodded. "Y-yes, Sir Jose. I was just delivering a message from the Council." 

 "Well, what is it, boy?" Jose asked.

"Ermm, they said to tell you that the Queen is in labor."

    "_What?! By Goddess, why didn't anybody say so??!" Jose jumped up with surprising vitality, knocking over his chair and startling 5 young ladies in the middle of an 'Intelligence Up' spell. Victor looked positively terrified. "I-I'm sorry, Master Jose! I – I didn't r-realize – "_

 "That's enough jibbering, son," Jose said, not in a mean way. He remembered how he had taken Victor in under his wing in palace care in the first place – _damn family of his, Jose thought murderously. __Leaving him out there in sub-zero weather to freeze to death, skin and bones...not enough food my ass. There's no excuse to throw your own son out to the cold and wolves._

    "Attention! Your Queen is in labor, giving birth to the crown prince!" Jose yelled with a deep, authoritative voice that snapped people to attention. This announcement gave way to gasps and excited mummers throughout the room.

 "Silence! I want all of you to train harder than ever now, while your Queen goes through the pain and agony of childbirth just for her people! I will return with more news. That is your first order! Understand?"

 "Yes sir!" chorused the mob of soldiers.

     "Good." Jose said, and promptly began running out the room through the door as fast as his heavy magician robes would allow him. Victor ran along side him, much more freely with bare-toed sandals and a light blue tunic. 

 "What shall you have me do, sir?" Victor said, still a little frightened from Jose's outburst. The aging man glanced at him once before resuming his hasty sprint. 

 "Tell the Chancellor that we need an organized baptism and kingdom celebration by nightfall."

"Yes Master Jose!" Victor ran off with a burst of speed and an aura of importance and urgency. Jose spared a chuckle before quickening his speed. 

  The door burst open and Jose collapsed against the wall, clutching his sides and breathing heavily.

 "Where – is – the – Queen?" 

   "In there, Sir Jose!" The young nursemaid pointed tremblingly at the open door to the infirmary. Jose thanked her and staggered over to cross the door.

 The moment he did, the sounds of anguished half moans reached his eardrums and he realized that the old nurse had warded a silencing charm on the room. The old nurse, Agatha, glanced up and looked back down, busy with dampening clothes to rest on the Queen's forehead. Jose noted distractedly, and with some amusement, that the standard grey-blue bed sheets had been removed in place of white linen sheets with gold trims. Valda demanded only the finest, even during excruciating pain and agony.

     The moans had quieted down some by now, and Agatha took a moment to explain the situation so far. 

"I've given her some potions that'll hopefully numb some of the pain." Agatha said, shifting the wet cloth to wipe the beads of sweat on her forehead. 

 "Jose?" Valda's voice, a whispery, breathy wheeze, called out. 

"I'm here, Valda." Jose walked closer and stood next to her side, holding her hand. 

   "It's…so cold, Jose." Valda's blue eyes were wide open, and staring blankly at the ceiling. Jose looked sharply at Agatha for explanation.

 "She might've taken extra doses. But it was needed." Agatha said shortly. Jose shook his head a bit sadly. "No…you misunderstand me, Agatha. She is remembering…or rather, she is lost and drifting in a horrible nightmare from long ago…"

 "What on earth are you talking about?" Agatha asked.

"Before you left Elrand and your children hadn't all grown up.. Valda had a child."

Agatha gasped. "What? That's impossible! No one in Altena has ever heard such a thing."

    "It was kept very quiet." Jose said somberly, tenderly brushing a stray lock of lovely indigo hair from Valda's face with a weathered old finger. "A boy. The Queen was so excited…but so much blood." Jose sighed.

 "A miscarriage?" Agatha asked in a low voice. Jose nodded in affirmation.

    "It was a boy. Dead before it even left the womb. The Queen stayed in her room for days on end."

There was a hushed silence, broken only by Valda's queer rhythm pattern of harsh breathing.

 "Forgive me, it is not my place to ask, but…who was the father?" Agatha whispered.

"The Queen has never told anyone. We all believed her to be a virgin, but…well, she refused to tell us."

   "Just like this time." Agatha said, faintly annoyed. 

Jose glared at her. "Do not speak of the Queen in that way." He thundered. "It is her right to not tell us if she wishes."

  "I see. So you're the only one who knows?" Agatha said. 

Jose tensed, but heaved his shoulders. "Forgive me, Agatha. Sometimes I forget how long you have lived on this earth. I would say you are wiser than me with your years of experience."

 "People have been saying…" Agatha said in a low voice, "that…that man. One of the twenty knights who came along with the Forcenan ambassadors. A prince, the people have been saying, yet he was dressed just like any other knight, except for perhaps a bit more gold in his armor. He…and Queen Valda.."

  Jose closed his eyes. "You must swear not to tell anyone."

"I would never betray my Queen, Jose." Agatha said, throwing away the soaked cloth for a new one. 

"I know." The two lapsed into a silence, watching their leader undergo the long wait of labor, her chest rising and falling deeply. 

     "The baby is a girl." Agatha said after about 10 minutes of complete and utter silence.

 "What?" Jose almost broke his neck, moving his head so fast up in shock. "How do you know?"

"Jose, I have helped more women give birth than I can care to remember." Agatha said in a clipped tone. "You know these things after a while." 

  "But…but we can't." Jose said, flustered. "I mean – not to say Queen Valda has never been anything less than a great ruler – on the contrary, she is the best we've had for years…but the whole reason she was on the throne was because King Jermaine died. She is in actuality a dowager princess. We have been throwing off our tradition of ruling – Valda changed the army drastically by stripping men of most of their power and putting women in charge…many of our citizens complain about the change. The Queen doesn't need the pressure of ruling a country…women do not have as much magical energy in them as men." Jose said. "Her body is not strong enough to handle this. It's amazing that she's been able to carry the kingdom for as long as she had, but…"

     "Her body will be broken if she keeps on using her Mana at this rate." Agatha finished. 

 Jose sighed. "Does the Queen know?"

   "She will, soon enough." As if by cue, the Queen began moaning again. 

"Richard…"

   "Get as many blankets as you can, and a warm bottle of water. I think the baby's ready to come out."

Jose started, staring at Agatha. "Me?"

 "Of course not. The Queen needs you. Girl! What is your name?"

    "Rena."

 "Rena!" Jose exclaimed, and turned to see the girl a couple beds away, deep under the thick sheets. 

"You weren't eavesdropping, were you?" He said seriously.

 "Of course not." Agatha was briskly getting out bowls and pans from the cupboards. "She's been laying there the whole time listening. You're getting old, Jose. Old and soft."

 "That would be the truth, yes." Jose said amiably. 

     "Get up! I told you, blankets and water!" Agatha squawked. Rena jumped up from her bed, wincing a bit at the fast movement. "Yes'um!" 

   "Wait! You…not one word of this conversation will leave this room, am I correct?" Jose said faintly.

Rena smiled confidently, surprising him. "Of course not, Sir Joseph. I live to serve the Queen, and her son…or daughter, if I may." With that, the girl took off.

            Jose stood out by the turrets, watching the fresh powder snow fall with his breath rising into the mist as puffs of air. It was something of a law by Queen Valda that men could not be present at births. So Jose stood outside, thinking deeply about his conversation with Agatha. 

  _A girl_, he mused thoughtfully. _I wonder if Valda will be pleased. Or disappointed. The Goddess knows Valda is determined to keep this system of matriarchy, but she is always so tired…what's that?_

  There was a small, lone figure fighting the snow storm. It was dressed in nothing thicker than rags, plain white ones that had been dirtied over time and wear to an off-white color. The head was a mess and mop of raggedly cut blonde spikes that flopped every time the figure walked. Quite a contrast from the twig figure that was ghastly pale white, pretty much matching the pale white snow surrounding the ground. Suddenly, the tiny figure staggered, and collapsed to the powdered snow. Just before it fell to the ground, it's head rolled back to the sky, and for a split second, made direct eye contact with Jose. He gasped.

      His eyes, which were the palest shade of blue, like twin pieces of glass icicles, flickered to a demonic reddish haze of blood, and a bemused half-smile was on the face – the face of a little boy, who couldn't possibly be much older than 5 or 6.

                        [_20 years past,_

_                                    and the Beasts will rise again_.]

            As the boy was carried into the castle, the Queen was carried away into her private chambers from hysteria and an overdose of drugs in the strong potions. The newborn baby, who was confirmed a girl, was left outside in the arms of Agatha, still unnamed and crying incessantly. 'What is her name? What did the Queen name her?' was the chorus from everyone around the castle that night. The Queen refused to come out of her bedroom to christen her, so Agatha was forced to quickly decide a name. There was a – sort of superstition, if you will – that if a newborn baby was left unnamed after the 1rst hour of its birth, the baby would become a curse. She decided on Angela, a rather standard Altenan name, and much too ordinary for an Altenan princess. But her name nonetheless.

      As for the boy, Jose was much too preoccupied with his worries about the Queen. So he named him Koren, after Jose's own father, and one of the greatest magicians that had ever lived in the world, so legendary he had become something of a myth.

                     In a way, it was ironic.

         tbc 

Fun Fact: This authoress was high on pearl milk tea and endless, repetitive Hillary Duff songs on Disney Channel that her little cousin watching all day while writing this fic.

2nd Fun Fact: The title was at first Fire and Ice, but was changed to The Sins of Temptation. Then authoress quickly realized that sounded way too much like the title of a soft porn movie, and hurriedly finalized the title as 'Seeing Red', after one of her favorite songs from a band whose name she's forgotten. Insert anime sweat drop here.

3rd Fun Fact: Hillary Duff is a gimp.


	2. A Tornado Trapped In a Hurricane

Seeing Red

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Author's Notes: Wow! Reviews! I didn't expect to see these until Chapter 5! It's people like you that make me want to write a Chapter 2. So, thanks to my loyal readers. You guys rock. …All 3 of you. 

Disclaimers: Blah, blah, blah. I don't own anything. Zip.

Replies To Reviews:

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Dargon: ^^; Sorry if I disturbed your mind frame for the rest of the day after reading them. Thanks for the review, though! Have a brownie.

ignorantly grinning: D'oh! *smacks self on the head* I should know that! Sigh. Thankee for helping me out there. 

Kurai-Jaugen-Doragon: Hey! You do shameless self-promotion in reviews too? Cool! KINDRED SPIRITS, UNITE! Woot! Relatively long review! It's people like you that make the world keep on spinning. *blink blink* Hey! I KNOW YOU! You're the authoress of the Grand Tournament! I'm dancing around in my underpants for joy! (not literally) About the Koren/Heath pairing though…dunno how the heck I'd work Heath into the storyline. But I'll try, for you. ^^

_I am a little insecure a little unconfident_

_Cause__ you don't understand I do what I can but sometimes I don't make sense_

_I say what you never wanna say but I've never had a doubt_

_It's like no matter what I do I can't convince you for once just to hear me out_

_So I let go watching you turn your back like you always do_

_Face away and pretend that I'm not_

_But I'll be here 'cause you're all that I've got_

- (Linkin Park) Meteora … "Faint"

Chapter 2: A Tornado Trapped in a Hurricane Storm

            Jose's eye twitched, for the 20-something time that day. 

  Splat.

     There went another 50 Luc. 

Another splat, this time landing on, non an inanimate object, but the prized, preciously silky hair of Kierra, the notorious 'Miss Perfect', sitting up in the front row.  This produced some giggles.

        Did they think him completely senile? He knew his eyes were heavily bagged and often squinting, but he wasn't a blind old bat… 

Splat. The man took a deep, shuddering breath to qualm his fury at the unmistakable wet, mushy feeling of a spitball. _Remember the old tactics, Jose. He told himself. __Act as if you hadn't noticed anything...then…_

     "A-hah!" Jose cried triumphantly, just as he whirled around. 

 He was sitting there looking completely, almost eerily, innocent, with big blue eyes, an expressionless face, and hands clasped together neatly on his desk.

 She was much more obvious, but still devoid of any hints of mischief-making, whistling a little ditty she made up on the spot, her eyes wandering around the classroom, choosing to focus on anywhere but Jose. 

   That was it. He was having a migraine. That was the only thing to explain this head splitting, mind numbing, absolute feeling of frustration and driven insanity. He was at his breaking point. There was no…way… in **hell**, was he going to teach these...these **things**, any longer. 

       Positively seething, he slammed his book onto the intricately carved oak desk. A sea of tiny heads bent down over a textbook with tiny words jumped up at the abrupt noise. 

     Except for those 2, of course.

 "Class. Dismissed." He said with his tongue between his teeth, stressing each word as if it was poison.

       A sound of joyous relief swept up the tiny room, and the door immediately opened with the kids pushing each other to get to the tiny, cramped door. But them. They were trying to escape from his notice, were they?

   "Koren! Angela!" Jose thundered with an ominous voice, but realized that the 2 little gremlin demon children were already long gone. He sighed in resignation and slumped back down into his chair. Goddess save him.

            "What a fool!" The tiny princess of Altena flipped her hair with a buoyant air, smiling mightily into the enchanted sun that only shined for them, those fortunate to be living in the castle. Her companion looked up at her with faint annoyance.

    "He's the greatest magician living here, second only to your mother." 

 Angela rolled her eyes. "You're such a pet, Koren. And if he's so great, how come he didn't catch me when I hit that spitball right at his butt?"

Koren tried to stop smiling, but it was futile. "I thought you were aiming at the Van Daan kid."

   "Colin? But he's cute!" 

  His smile immediately turned ugly. "He and some other boys he got together tried to beat me up last week."

 Angela looked surprised. "How come I didn't know?"

"You were off with your mother to that Forcena peace treaty thing, remember?" Koren said. "Honestly, Angie, you're so absent minded sometimes."

The said person pouted cutely. "That's not fair! So what happened??"

    "He just came up and said 'freak' and pushed me." Koren's scowl, if anything, grew deeper. "Then some more came over and formed a little circle, laughing and taking turns shoving me and calling me a name. They re-used the ones they liked, like 'oddkin', 'demi', 'freaky-odd', 'orphan', and 'bastard'." [1]

  "You know, it's weird," remarked Angela, idly twirling a strand of hair around her finger while staring into the sun – which never burned their eyes, as was rumored to happen in those foreign places like Navarre – "I heard Jjiylinn Varas call me that last Tuesday. I asked her what that meant, but she just pointed and laughed."

    Koren's face turned stony and murderous. "I'll hit her." 

 Angela waved her hand vaguely. "No, no. I got the gist that it wasn't a compliment, so I punched her and gave her a bloody nose."

In spite of himself, he laughed. "Angela, princess of Altena? Dirty her hands to fight?" 

  She sniffily turned up her nose. "I wasn't just going to let her laugh at me, a royal princess! Besides, I went without 2 meals that day as punishment from Mother for it. It was an unladylike thing to do."

      "Well, the Queen is very powerful. She must be right." Koren shrugged.

  This provoked a 'humph' from Angela. "Mother is powerful, I admit, but not always right." Angela said. 

Koren looked taken aback. "But, Angela! How can you say that? She is the most powerful person in all of Altena, of women _and_ men!"

    "Power isn't everything, Kor! In any case, I couldn't allow myself, a princess, to be treated like that. So I snuck into the kitchen at night when everyone was asleep."

 Angela was the only person in the world who could make Koren return from one of his sanctimonious preachings/tantrums/moody fits of sullenness in .01 seconds flat. 

   "Oh, _that's _real princess-like. Wait – last Tuesday? You went without me?"     

        The purple-haired tiny royal stuck out her tongue. "You kept a secret, so did I!" 

    "Fair enough."

 Undeterred, Angela lightly punched the boy on the arm. "Hey! What was that for?"

   "You're supposed to beg me for forgiveness now, dummy!" said Angela as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

 Koren rolled his eyes. "You're such a prissy brat, Angie."

  "And you're such a snobby jerk that's, what more, a _boy_!" Angela said imperiously. "Take it back!"

Punch.

 "**Ow**! That was uncalled for!" Punch.

"You're bruising my delicate skin!" Punch.

 "Says you! Is this how a princess acts?" Punch.

"It is when it's a matter of self-defence!" Punch.

"_Self-defense_?! What world are you living in?" Punch.

"The kind where I can beat a wimpy boy like you pulp!" Punch.

"Hah! You're a _girl_, Angela! You can't do squat!" Punch.

"WHAT?!" Tackle.

        This went on for a length of time, 2 children yelling and biting (in Angela's case) and screaming and kicking and flailing their arms and all-around generally just having a good ol' time. If her mother could've seen her. Angela would've had a flogging that would bring back tears just remembering it. That fact delighted her, and she tousled and struggled with Jose's adoptive son-of-sorts with merry glee.

    "Princess Angela!" A voice said, sounding stunned. The fighting stopped immediately, and the 2 bruised, dirtied, disheveled children that were positively grinning mad with enjoyment froze and stared at where the voice came from. Angela's scrawny frame was saddled on top of Koren's own boniness. Koren's bright smile turned automatically into his stoic, blank stare, and Angela started glowing even more brightly than she had been before. 

  "Victor!" She squealed, and tackled for the second time that day. Koren's face stiffened, but remained with the same blankness that made villagers talk of the 'dumb, retarded child that Jose took in'. Victor, who was a preteenager with all of the standard attributes – tall, gangly, lanky, and gawky, at least in Koren's opinion, fell down at the small, speeding object that hurtled into his abdomen, and laughed gaily at the girl who was squeezing his waist and cutting off the circulation. 

 "Princess, what on earth were you doing?" Victor asked, smiling affectionately. 

      Angela took on her puppy pout that no one in all of Altena could resist. "I was just having some fun, Vicky!"

   Victor chuckled. "Your idea of fun is always entertaining for the Great Council and your mother to hear in the middle of an important conference, when she is busy with a heavy debate and hears all of a sudden from a manservant that you got yourself stuck in a tree 50 feet in the air and refuse to come back down."

 "That was only once!" 

   Victor shook his head, smiling. "Well, I came to tell you that the Queen is calling for you in the throne room."

 Angela widened her eyes. "Mother? Calling for me? She wants to speak with me?"

  The princess didn't wait a second to jump off of Victor and race off with that same arrogant, impatient hop-and-skip that Angela patented. But not before planting a kiss to Victor's cheek, much to Koren's repulsion. 

     "Oh, Koren." Victor turned his head and faded his genuine smile to a polite, indifferent one. "Sir Joseph wants to see you in his classroom. You can find your way there, right Koren?"

  "I'll manage." Koren spat with forced civility. He got up and brushed himself off, and, mustering all the lost dignity he had, marched out of the courtyard. The lanky blonde stood there alone, coolly watching the smaller blonde boy walk away. 

            "Princess Angela, the Queen awaits!" The guard announced in an impressive voice.

     "You know, you don't have to say that every time I come around. I _know_. That'd be the only reason I'd come here." Angela said, aggravated.

 "Princess Angela, the Queen awaits!" 

    Angela rolled her eyes, exasperated. "What a dork." She muttered as she moved past the 2 stupid, brainless guards through the door. [2]

 She rarely went into the throne room, and even when she did, it always seemed new and frightening and – she hated to admit it – scary. It was a large room, much larger than her bedroom, with high ceilings and everything dark and dimly lit because the windows were high up and small. Everything was made of stone, and the air was a constant frigid cold that made shivering impossible to avoid. The floor was the only thing not made of stone – pure marble, gleaming so bright that you could see your own reflection. Presently, she was walking timidly forward with tiny baby steps, and could hear very clearly the echo of her steps. She could not see the Queen, as she was walking through a mini-hall of grand, mauve curtains with a gold trim.

        "M-mother?" Angela said with a tiny voice, devoid of any courage and spirit and regality she usually carried with her.

   "Come where I can see you, Princess Angela." said the regal, majestic voice that resounded all throughout the room.

 Angela walked forward a bit, pushing past the heavy curtains, to see the great Queen of Reason sitting there, her eyes glossy and dark. Many poets in the world had tried to describe Queen Valda's beauty and power – no one could ever really get it right. 'Beautiful and terrible', 'the waves in the sea after an earth-shaking storm', 'Cold, pure, and untouchable, like winter's fresh snow'. 

     The only way Angela could think of to describe her was 'a person who everybody thinks is great, but is really a downright fraud with many, many flaws'. And it wasn't even that poetic. Her version had some more crude words she had learned from the blacksmith's mouth whenever she and Koren snuck in to steal a hammer or a ring or some tiny object to amuse themselves with.

              Angela had to admit, the Queen was very beautiful, though. Graceful and poised, commanding and great, with a natural air of solemnity and strength. And all Angela could think of was, it wasn't fair that Angela couldn't be like her. It wasn't fair that just because Angela tried so hard to, but couldn't, that she was punished for it. All this, she longed to yell at the Queen's face, and to throw a gigantic wad of spitballs at the Queen's lovely face, but that was neither here nor there.

  "Jose tells me you have made trouble for yourself, your classmates, and him again." Valda said.

       "W-we didn't mean to." Angela said in a tiny voice.

"We? You mean the only other child in this kingdom that cannot perform a drop of a magic. Clearly, the lack of magical essence in your blood makes you idle-minded and dim."

    "But-but I do good in my studies!" Angela protested, offended at the bluntness of it all.

 "Only because you copy your work from the boy's. Never mind. I blame myself. I should've known nothing good would come out of trying to make you blend in with the other children. The other children, of the common folk, who have more magical ability than a child of direct bloodline to the Royal Family."

       Angela fell silent, making a valiant effort not to cry. Her chin trembled. 

   "From now on, you receive private tutoring with Jose. No more classes where you can further humiliate this palace with your antics."

 "Is that all you have to say, Mother?" Angela said with an unnaturally high voice.

Valda surveyed the child for a moment before saying dispassionately, "That is all. You are dismissed."

        "I thank you, Queen." 

            tbc

[1] There's this book I'm reading, it has weird words in it, like 'freaky-odd' and 'demi'. (short for demon child) That's to explain if any of y'all are confused by made-up words. ^^

[2] Heheheh. This is just a play on NPC's stupid, repetitive words. ^.^ You'll see more jokes like these in this story. Beware.

A/N: Soo…what do you think? Come on, you know you wanna review! Clickety clickety click! 

Fun Fact: Kierra is based on a girl at my school. And yes, I did throw a spitball at her. It was very satisfying to do, even if I did get a citation. XD 

2nd Fun Fact: Pixie sticks are good. Fufufufufufufu.   

3rd Fun Fact: There's a kid in my church whose friend is cousins with Joe Hahn of Linkin Park. I wish I had connections like those. -_-  


	3. Something Akin To Insanity

"Your boot is dying."

- Angela of Altena

Seeing Red

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Author's Notes: Because my computer screwed up (again) and did something really weird earlier, and I am far too lazy to correct it, there are no reviewer responses this chapter around. I know, I know, you're sad that you won't get a personalized message from moi like you've so been looking forward to. Try not to cry too much into your pillows at night, please? 

        Anyways, just know that I love you all so very much! I LOOOOOVE YOOOOUUU!!! 

           And that is all.

_Some look at the time, I looked back into my life   
You want to touch me to see what's in my eyes   
Why do you make me remember all the hate all its shame   
Don't you hate me, sometimes?_

            - (KoRn) Life Is Peachy … "No Place To Hide"

Chapter 3: Something Akin to Insanity

"I can not believe this." 

was the mantra that Jose was muttering to himself over and over again. Sure, he added a couple random words here and there that would make a sailor blush, variating it a bit, but in the end, it came down to that sentence. Because he couldn't. 'Honestly, Goddess, why?' he asked to the sky. What had he ever done to anger the Goddess; tempt fate? Was it because he wasn't religious enough? No, that couldn't be. He went to the Holy Masses every Sunday, even if was overfilled to the top with hypocritical noblemen bejeweled from head to toe and ladies with over-extravagant dresses attempting to sing along with the choir of natural beauty and purging the soul of greed and impurity. And he actually listened to the sermons, unlike those childish fiends known as Koren and Angela…

"YOU'RE IT!"

Speak of the devil. Oh. Was that why the Goddess was angry with him? 

Ear-piercing shrieks of laughter reached his old, aching ears of wisdom and fatigue. At least, that's how he liked to think of it. Anyways, the 2 'gremlin children' entered the library full of exuberance, life, and bright, contagious energy. Blegh. Absolutely disgusting.

"You can't catch me!" Angela said in a sing-song voice, running lightly as if on air. She was laughing and teasing, looking behind her at the panting, pale, but oddly determined Koren, with a grin on his face. Grudgingly, Jose admitted (to himself, of course) that the two looked as innocent as snowflakes right then. Angela's bright green eyes, that must've come from her father because Queen Valda had purple-bluish eyes, were luminous as her smile sparkled with happiness, looking like a true child of the Mana Goddess. Koren, who had a peculiar air of darkness and obscurity that constantly shrouded him; the kind that made the entire palace court suspicious and wary and talk about that 'strange boy that Jose took under his wing'. This melancholy aura was always immediately dispelled by the ever jubilant, cheeky Angela who walked as if with balls permanently sewn under the soles of her feet.

However, this train of thought was abruptly stopped to a screeching halt when Angela, not looking at where her feet was leading her, slammed into the small foot table with the prized vase with elaborate designs of lilies, the Queen's favorite, carved into the urn made of ever-lasting, magically-induced crystalline blue ice, fired and heated directly into the finest of the faraway fires in the Valley of Flames. 

And this wasn't just any vase. Oh, no. It had to be the one containing the very, very rare Holy Water – the kind that is ONLY used for baptisms and christenings and for very prestigious royal weddings, ONLY in Wendel, ONLY by the Priest of Light, and the purest imported kind out there.

And all she could say was "Oops"???

"Princess Angela," Jose gritted his teeth in frustration and barely-concealed rage. "That, was NOT, by any degree, princess-like, nor clever, let alone common sense." 

Goddesses forbid that Angela would be bothered in the slightest by this. She rolled her eyes, tossed her hair exaggeratedly, saying "Well, _duh. I never do anything princess-like, clever, or sensible. This isn't news, Jose – I've heard it a thousand times before." _

Livid and red-faced, Jose chose not to reply and turned to Koren, the other player in this game of cat-and-mouse. Koren was ashen-faced, looking torn between his only, and very best friend's insolence, and the fury of the one man he had looked up to adoringly all of his life. So he chose to stare fervently at the valuable-no-longer vase, smashed quite neatly in two. The holy water was creeping sluggishly, pulled down by gravity and a very slight mistake in the ancient period of the building of the library, and touched Jose's boots. Even through the thick leather of the footwear, he could feel it eating away at the boot, purifying it and cleansing it of all dirt – and fabric. It was extraordinarily icy-cold; colder than the coldest of the ice fields, but it also burned. Cold fire.

"Your boot is dying." Angela pointed out absent-mindedly. 

"I noticed." Jose growled. Angela made a face, but remained silent. Jose stood there, with a dying boot, and two mute children, one too embarrassed and so ashamed to speak, and the other too careless to talk.

Jose was trying to think of what to do. The situation was really, in all actuality, ridiculously funny, but Koren was too stoic and serious and Angela was too rebellious to realize it. It took all of Jose's will not to release his tremendous effort to stop shaking his shoulders and laugh it up. 

After a hefty amount of silence, Jose coughed. "Well, we will think up a punishment for you later, Angela. As none of the traditional ones seem to have an effect on you."

"Yeah." Angela said vaguely, twirling a lavender lock around her fingers.

Jose turned to Koren, who seemed to have lightened up, having figured out that Jose was not quite as angry anymore. "Erm…you can go now, Koren. Angela won't be back for quite a few hours, so you best find something else to amuse you."

"Wait, what? Angela's having extra lessons without me?" Koren's bright smile dimmed instanteously. "Th..that's not fair!"

"What's not fair, Koren? The Queen specifically ordered for Angela to have separate lessons for the rest of the year, and see how it goes. I believe the whole reason you two – behave – the way you do in my studies are because you work together as a team. Which usually would not be disapproved in my eyes at all, but the manner in which you two operate is highly unbecoming of a future ruler such as Princess Angela and a courtier such as yourself."

Angela wrinkled her nose. "A courtier?"

But Koren had completely ignored Jose's ramblings. "Since when did we decide to let Angela get extra lessons? She doesn't even deserve her marks!" 

"HEY!" Angela raised her nose up to the air and crossed her arms, assuming her 'better than thou' look. "You're the one who lets me! If you don't want me to, then don't tell me the answers!"

"Koren, I am flattered that you enjoy the class time we spend together so much, especially considering that you never seem to be working and merely having fun spewing saliva-cached wads of parchment."

"I _do._ More than her, anyways." Koren motioned with a brief flick of his head sideways at the princess next to him. This obviously enraged Angela more than Koren realized, poor soul.

"DON'T." Smack. "-TALK." Kick. "-TO ME." Punch. "-LIKE." Slap. "-THAT." Tackle. Wait, is there a sound effect for tackle?

(A/N: POW! BAM! KAJOOLAZOO! SNEEKITY SNEEKITY SNEE! ….what? Oh, right. No author notes in the middle of a fic. Shame!)

Jose threw his hands up in exasperation. What was the point of talking to two raucous children that got into fights every 15 minutes and would eventually prove to the bane of Altena's existence? 

"I'M THE FREAKIN' DAUGHTER OF THE QUEEN OF ALTENA, AND YOU BETTER NOT EVER INSULT ME SO CRUDELY THAT WAY AGAIN, OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY!"

Oh yes, that.

"Children!" Rena cried anxiously. This was how the young woman had found the trio 20 minutes later – Jose was on a chair stretched out and smoking a pipe languidly, while Koren and Angela were carrying out combat on each other viciously in a way only the young and mighty could get away with – biting, scratching, kicking, shoving, pulling out lovely lavender hair, screaming and stretching out nonnative, round ears in retaliation. [1] 

"Sir Jose! With all due respect, have you done nothing to attempt to becalm this?" Rena shouted over the screaming and yelling. As a reply, Jose simply gave an indifferent shrug. 

"Princess Angela! Master Koren! Please, bring an end to this _now_!" People were unused to Rena's stern, loud, bossy side, as the girl was as meek and docile as anything, but such people like Koren or Angela wouldn't give a rabite's foot about that. As proven when Rena reached into the tussle to pull the two apart, but leaped back with a loud "YOWCH!" and a throbbing hand bitten by Angela's sharp teeth.

Jose administered a very primitive medication process to a bitter Rena with torn cloth ripped from the satiny, shiny blue cloth from Rena's sleeve, but didn't do much aside from that until yet another innocent bystander was injured. 

It all happened very quickly; the two brawlers had been skirmishing primarily in one spot, but suddenly began to move and roll about. They had been nearing yet ANOTHER foot table containing another vase, thankfully not as valuable as the first one, but still, made of some of the finest crystalline that was scattered about deep in Gemstone Valley. Jose looked up just as he tied the primeval bandage on Rena's hand with a tight, neat knot, to see the end table be shoved by two bodies, the glittering green emerald vase tipped over and falling…then Victor appeared, seemingly out of nowhere like a godsend savior, and smartly catching it with two hands. Until Koren and Angela rolled further and shoved Victor back; the boy stumbled clumsily backwards. Jose expected an untimely demise of the vase and both the boy – as an ingrown teenager with the look of someone that had grown too fast in too short a time, thusly producing a slightly pinched look, Victor was armed with a pair of ungainly, inadequately graceful large feet. Jose closed his eyes in resignation, waiting for that heart stopping shattering of glass, but instead, heard a large THUD and a sickeningly painful-sounding CRACK, and some tormenting groans.

"Victor!" Angela squealed, immediately halting in mid-air while performing the act of trying to rip Koren's ears off. She scrambled off from the straddle hold on Koren to timidly crawl on her hands and knees towards the boy. "Are you okay?" She whispered anxiously.

"Not quite – Princess." Victor hissed breathlessly, gasping each word out in pain. Koren stood uneasily to the side while Rena scrambled off her hindquarters even faster than Angela had to kneel by Victor's side and gather his head onto her lap. Jose slowly rose up to see what had happened to his apprentice, and unsurprisingly, Victor's leg was in an awkward, uncomfortable position, while his ankle was swelling up quickly with a nasty purplish color.

"This has gone far enough." Jose assumed his regal, commanding air, quickly barking out orders. "Rena, help Victor up and take him to the infirmary." Rena nodded, and slowly, Victor got up, wincing at every movement, and slung his arm around Rena's small frame. Together, the two of them walked out of the library, Victor hopping on one foot gracelessly. Jose and Angela and Victor watched the pair walk out, and then the man turned to the two shorter people in the room. "You two –" Jose began thunderously. In one of the few times of her life, Angela shrunk with every syllable Jose uttered. Despite himself, the image of seeing the haughty, arrogant Angela shrink to submissiveness made the elderly man feel guilty. Koren did not look guilty, or ashamed, or cold and emotionless – he blankly stared ahead seemingly at nothing at all. It was an expression Jose had never seen before on the boy, but made sense as to how people always spoke kindly to Jose about his benevolent actions of taking in such a simpleton of a boy, and Jose would ask them what on earth they were talking about, because Koren always maintained a look of intelligence and eagerness at learning with Jose.

Jose sighed. "Your lessons will be postponed until tomorrow, Angela. And Koren, you would be wise to take along an extra quill for when Angela forgets."

Angela squealed with giddiness, and Koren let a smile break through his dull façade. "Thank you, Lord Jose." Koren swept into an elegant bow that made the most rich, polished noblemen blush with embarrassment, while Angela latched onto Jose's leg and hugged it tightly. [2] "Be warned, however," Jose said in a cautioning voice, "if this ever, _ever_ happens again…"

"We know, we know, Jose!" Angela said, resuming her pompous attitude predictably quickly. She raced out of the library while Koren made a final elegant bow and solemnly walked out behind the hyperactive princess with such dignity for an adolescent it made Jose chuckle.

"That was perfect, Angie. Every bit of it. Well, except for that ear-pulling thing. We certainly didn't discuss that."

"Oh, I improvised a bit for that part. Besides, you were saying your lines _FAR_ too convincingly. It made me angry; I thought you really meant it!"

"That was what we were trying to get come across. Honestly, Angela…"

"Shut up. It was a good show, anyways. Wicked fun. But my scalp is sore!"

"Quite whining, it'll grow back." 

"Don't make me kick you again."

"Alright, alright." 

"And what about what happened with Victor?! We never talked anything about injuring him!"

"Oh, yes, well, hmm…it worked out in our favor, didn't it?"

"We could've done without it, Kor!" 

"Perhaps, but what's done is done."

"Ooh! That's it, I'm going to go the infirmary and see how Vicky is coping!"

"Is that supposed to offend me or something?"

"It usually does!" With that, the dainty princess of Altena stomped angrily away in the dark stone corridor, leaving behind a very red-faced skinny blonde who had never actually blushed in his life before. 

There was a silence, and he also turned to walk away into the opposite direction. 

"He deserved it." Koren muttered sourly.

[1] In my fic, Koren is nonnative to Altena. (He was wandering around in a snowstorm, afterall. That could mean ANYTHING! :P) His exact history will be explained later on.

[2] Remind you of anybody? *dooweedoowahCarliedeewahmookookookachoo* 

Next chappie: Koren finds something shocking about the Queen, and Angie finds that magic lessons with Jose suck serious rabite booty. 

Closing A/N: You guys rock serious arse. 7 is my lucky number! I knew I couldn't delay this chapter any longer after that! ^^ Now then, how about clicking that little button over there? Heheheh, yes… No, WAIT, NOT THE X! Aw crap! _

Fun Fact: There are no fun facts this time. 


	4. Disembodied Voices Equal BAD

"Those must be ancient. Almost as old as you, I imagine."

- Angela of Altena

**Seeing Red**

Author's Notes: Yes, yes, I'm bad and lazy. Naughty poptart. Well, I updated at last, so there. Read and review, you lot, please!

Disclaimers: I made up a song, just for you.

_Don't sue me please_

_I have some cheese_

_Straight from __Greece___

_Don't get out your law suits_

_Or else I shall flee!_

_With the geese_

_(and Earl, my main squeeze)_

**Reviewer Responses**

Staci/Nadia – Aww. Your review made me sad, because in this chapter, they're a deal bit older, so now they're not so much cute and evil and mischevious as they are pubescent and evil and cranky and perhaps a tad bit acne-y. I fully encourage you write your Koren/Angela littlekiddiebuddyfriends fic. Unless you already have. I really should've updated this a while ago, I think. Love triangle? Well, you'll see. cackle

Another Dark Being – Affirmative on the spitball issue. Your last comment about your highly-rated fics intrigue me…linkage, please? And stop winking at me! I am innocent! runs awaaay

ignorantly grinning: See, this is why I changed the genre from angst. --; This fic is faaar from it. Thanks for the review, as always!

Kurai-Jaugen-Doragon: Heath is a special little priestboy. And I wouldn't know about sexualities rocking, but I bet it's pretty awesome. It always makes me glow to have my Koren-centric fic reviewed by THE Koren fan, so thanks again for reviewing!

Freeloader1: Woot! I didn't realize it was that funny. Well, I did, because it was the funniest thing in my chapter (so very sad) but yeah, thanks for noticing. Oh, and sadness. You were numbered. Damn conformity! DAMN IT ALL!!! …cough. Thanks for reviewing. Reviewing gives me a snuggly warm feeling in my stomach, kind of like how I feel when I set fire to teletubbies.

Red Dragon: NEW REVIEWER!! Joy! I really should get an alarm for this.

Insane Laine/Laine-Laine/Whatever: Eep. I don't mean for Mana Goddess religion and Christianity to be so alike. I guess I'm just uncreative. That, or I am brainwashed by Catholicism anyways. I empathize with you. I had to go to Catholic school for 5 years (only elementary). And you can't stop me from being lazy and uninspired! That's who I am. YOU CAN'T CHANGE ME!! I'M UNIQUE. Oh, by the way, you must update Hold On likeNOWtally-opippip.

_they've__ come to find you odalisque   
as the light dies horribly   
on a fire escape you walk   
all rare and resolved to drop   
  
and when they find you odalisque   
they will rend you terribly   
stitch from stitch til all   
your linen and limbs will fall___

- (The Decemberists) Castaways And Cutouts … "Odalisque"

* * *

Chapter 4: Disembodied Voices = Bad

"_Ferrshel____, a__gulen_, u – umn – _umnicűou__, ezzebareth…_" [1]

"Very good, Angela. Now precede to the next line." Jose said pleasantly. Angela stuck out her bottom lip in objection, looking as if she'd very much like to say "No, I don't think I will, thanks" in typical Angela fashion, but instead, took a deep, miserable breath and resumed the ancient text of the ritualistic chants that took place before a magic spell, the technique of the Faraaq a 'das, the ancestors of the Altenans. The room settled back into the comfortable silence with only Angela's high voice slowly stuttering out the peculiarly pronounced words.

"_Ag__ædorr__, __ώ__inferrale__, ozcōr – " _

"It's _ό__zcōr_." Koren smoothly interrupted. Angela raised her eyes from the dusty textbook and glared at her friend, while Jose arched an eyebrow, impressed that he had known without even seeing the printed word.

"Indeed, Koren, that is correct." He smiled crookedly, as if he had an inside joke that he wasn't planning to share. "Funny, though, that the word you happened to correct for Angela was 'death' in Faraaqi."

"What?!" Angela shrieked, and jumped up from her seat so fast the book was knocked off the table and fell to the floor.

"Princess Angela!" Jose scolded, bending over to pick it up. "And that's why I don't tell you what the words mean – you would react just like that."

"Well, if I had KNOWN that I was reciting a death spell for you old loon, I would never have said them at all!" Angela yelled. Jose threw his hands up in exasperation.

"That was not a death spell, princess! And even if it was, it would require an extremely fit, powerful mage to harness such a spell!"

The girl persisted. "Then why did it say -"

"_All _words in Faraaqi are dark and gruesome, Angela. There's not even a word for 'smile' or 'rainbow' in that ancient language." Koren drawled lazily from his slouched position in the wooden chair. Jose nodded.

"Why, that very line you just recited half way - _Ag__ædorr__, __ώ__inferrale__,__ ό__zcōr_– that alone translates roughly to Greed, Power, and Death. In the original text, it goes _'Thou shall lust for thy power of hereineth of golden strife in life. Thee canst cast shadows on fair and meadow__ province__, and may death come easily to those who hast made haste and fall.'_"

Angela wrinkled her nose. "Goddess, what awful poetry. That didn't make any sense!"

"It doesn't have to. They made their general point come across, which is all you need to bargain with the Underworld for power." Koren said, idly twiddling his thumbs and staring at the ceiling, obviously bored. Angela's green eyes widened, and she whirled to point an accusing finger at Jose.

"I knew it! You – you're trying to use me as a catalyst or something!" Angela screeched. Jose rolled his eyes. "Princess, I don't believe you even know what 'catalyst' means." Koren snickered, and Angela shot a look that could kill. The blonde quickly silenced.

"That's it, I've had enough of the book-and-pen part of our lesson. Let's move on." Jose said tiredly, closing the tattered book in front of Angela. "We are going to try some basic spells." Koren leaned forward in his chair, much more interested now. Angela merely groaned and fell back against her chair.

"I can't do them in class, what makes you think I can do it here?" Angela grumbled sourly. Jose cast an equally sour look at the lavender-haired girl.

"The reason we are having lessons and conducting work here is because you cannot perform in class exceptionally well. The Queen and I find that you are remarkably lazy among the distractions of classmates and divided attention. Koren is a different case, of course," Jose nodded at his half-son of sorts. "He is extremely studious and ambitious, but hard as he might try, the fruits of his labors do not coincide with his learning habits."

"How heartbreaking." Angela said dully. "Just get on with it, Jose. Might as well."

Jose produced two candles from his deep pockets. They were white, with wax chaffing off at the sides; fat in width and stubby in height. The wicks were long and old and shriveled up like a prune.

"Those must be ancient. Almost as old as you, I imagine." Angela commented.

"They are used over and over again." Jose replied, ignoring Angela's last sentence with some effort. "Now, both of you come over here, and put your right hand over the candle, about 2 or 3 inches away. Angela, you'll have to use your left hand, as you are fool-handed." [2]

"Now, this is where you must put concentration and effort in. Just keep it there, and will yourself to make your hand warm. Eventually, not only should your hand feel warm, but the candle wick itself. At the very least, a flicker of flame should burst out and disappear. That's at the least, however… it happened to be that yesterday in class, Kierra managed to make a fully-formed flame appear and keep the candle burning for a full 10 minutes."

Koren and Angela exchanged dark looks at this, and thrust out their hands over the candle.

_Koren's__ hands are so big. They don't look Altenan at all._ Angela mused, glancing at him for a second. Koren's eyes were scrunched up and knit together in concentration, with a surprisingly serious look on his young face that made her silently shake with laughter, but only for a moment.

_Concentrate, Angela!_ She chided herself, feeling Jose's failing eyes boring into the back of her skull. _No wonder you do so badly in class – you're too busy looking over Koren's body._

This made Angela blush, at how her mind had pieced together that thought with those specific words. Hopefully, she wasn't turning into another one of those stupid girls; one of those stupid girls who actually thought that Koren was **cute**. Ugh. Angela suppressed a shudder. Koren was all skinny and pale; all elbows and knees and no form. His hair was all straw-like and thin too, even though it was quite nice in color. It was richer than Victor's pale blonde, kind of like a golden sun-nish hue. But it was all wrong on that horribly pale, bony, angular face. His eyes were spaced too far apart, though they were okay in itself. They were the palest shade of blue, almost like ice, and gave people shivers sometimes, at how cold they appeared to be.

_Yes, his eyes are alright, I guess,_ Angela thought. _But still, he's got nothing on Victor._ Wait – when did she start comparing her Victor to Koren, of all people?

_Well, it's the truth, isn't it?_ Angela asked herself. Koren was cute, she supposed, in his own odd way, especially when he was in the middle of a hard problem and in deep thought… but Victor was so handsome. Angela had always fancied him before, in a silly kiddie crush sort of way, but somewhere between Angela being a little kid and growing into an unruly little teenager, Victor had grown into himself as well, transitioning from gawky teen to a handsome young man, which unfortunately had yet to happen to Koren, who was around the same age as Victor (and Angela believed, never would). None of the girls had ever paid attention to her Victor before, and all of a sudden, every day, they would hang around trying to get his attention by batting their eyelashes and pouting their lips. Well, none of it worked on him, Angela noted happily. Really, she was the only one Victor ever took a shine to in his years in Altena, and while it was probably just because he had a hand in raising her with Jose, it was still something Angela had over the stupid lower girls in the court. They were all so jealous of her, being so chummy with both Victor and Koren.

Angela frowned. Really, honestly. What did they see in Kor? Victor was so much more amazing, with that lean, muscular body. And really, those big blue eyes, like the sky in which the cheerful sun shined through every day for Altena… Koren's icy stare had nothing on that! He was nothing much to look at; it was just those stupid girls' overactive imaginations and desperation. Though she couldn't say much more about herself; her body had a mind of its own now, sometimes. Stupid puberty. How dare it sink its smelly claws into the princess of Altena? Nevertheless, it was happening to the 14-year old girl. One foot would go forward, another would twist at an angle, and suddenly she'd find herself falling face first. And with her luck, it would just happen to be right before one of the Queen's pompous, foolish noble counselors, who would either laugh or hem and haw at her before scurrying away, probably to tattle on her klutziness.

"ANGELA!"

Both Jose and Koren were watching her; Koren with a kind of half-amused look on his face, and Jose with unmistakable annoyance.

"What on earth have you been doing for the past 15 minutes?" Jose demanded. He stepped forward and took the candle into his hand. "It's not even lukewarm! Have you been day dreaming the entire time?"

"Relax, Jose; I was day dreaming about making the candle burst into flames." Angela said. Jose's face turned into a mottled purple, with a vein pulsating at his forehead. He thought these lessons were supposed to benefit them all… increase productivity with Angela, and reduce stress…

"Koren, you may go." Jose said calmly with strained difficulty. Koren looked mildly surprised.

"But, sir? I hardly made my candle go lukewarm at all either." Koren said this last part with some bitterness, but Jose ignored it.

"It's fine, Koren. At least I know you were trying, unlike some." said Jose, looking intimidating with a crushed candle in his hand. Koren shrugged, and began walking out the room. Jose stood there before the petite princess, waiting for an apology that he fully knew would not come.

"You're ruining your candle." Angela said. "Did you know?"

Koren broke into a run.

There's something magical about winter in Altena. Oh, it was winter all the time in their country, of course, but when it was actually in season, it was different. The snow is a little bit purer; the air is a little bit more dense and bitter and if you take in a deep breath, it's almost as if your lungs had frozen, or taken a dive into a cold, clean lake. Of course, most of them, naturally, did not appreciate cold weather, considering their queen devoted much of her energy to keep it away for them, but for Koren, he took almost every chance he had to stroll outside of the gates of the castle and enjoy himself. Once, he had walked out much farther than usual, so far that he could not see the castle in view any more. Perhaps a normal child would've been frightened, but it was an awesome view to take in for him. There had been nothing but flat white powder for miles surrounding him, and no sound except for the silent falling of snowflakes. It was an amazing feeling, albeit a slightly strange one that stirred a great feeling of loneliness, and one that Koren hadn't had a chance to have done since, because Jose and Angela found him later and scolded him, both of them, when he came back inside with frozen toes and blue lips.

See, that was the problem about loving the cold. His body couldn't stand it. Any of them could last in the cold for hours, Altenans, even if they didn't like it very much at all; Koren could barely handle 30 minutes. His body was different from these descendants of the Faraaq a 'das. Jose had tried to guess his heritage before, and the least vague result he came up with was that Koren was a 'mixed', and that being the case made it much harder to calculate his roots. Some of the many combinations he came up with were '½ Forcenan, ½ Rolantian'. Or another: '¾ Forcenan, ¼ Navarrian'. That would explain his complete lack of magic talent. But then, it just might be a fluke thing, like with Angela. Once, in an attempt to theorize about Koren's pale skin that sometimes seemed to be translucent, even, in moonlight, he came up with that he had an ounce of Elvish in him. But Elves loved the snow… well; they pretty much loved any kind of weather, according to Jose. They cherished anything that was given to them by nature, and could stand against anything that nature gave them. Koren was the only kid in wintertime who could never stand outside long enough to make a full snowman with the others. Well, him, and Victor.

Koren allowed a small smile to creep onto his face, making the watch guards stare strangely at him as he walked past them through the gate. He ignored them and slowly put a foot from the cold stone to plush powder. His foot sank in slowly through 6 inches of snow, and he took another step, sinking a bit more.

Victor. He was even more of a wimp about the cold than Koren, though he supposed that would be because Victor didn't actually like cold as Koren did. He preferred to stay inside and be a good little boy, running around with errands for Jose, the Queen, or spending extra time with the books to learn even more advanced magic, training as Jose's apprentice, becoming the world's youngest magic theorem teacher, earning respect and awe every where from the royal court, the Queen herself, an extremely proud Jose, even Angela…

Koren gritted his teeth. Victor. What a fool. What an idiot. He was just a little, hapless puppet that was happy and unwilling to let go of his strings. Koren balled his hands into fists. A puppet with more magical potent than him and Angela combined, and a stupid brain just waiting to get brainwashed to go with it.

It wasn't fair. Angela couldn't understand; probably never would. She absolutely adored 'Vicky', just like everyone else. Koren had no idea why; the guy was a complete klutz with giant feet. He had a big nose too. Plus, he stuttered a lot around Jose and blushed whenever an older woman made suggestive comments towards him. (This happened to be often, for reasons beyond Koren's understanding.) Koren hadn't any idea why Jose would think the two were very much alike. Who _cared_ that they were both found and taken in by Jose on the coldest day of the year, during the worst snow blizzard of the year? Certainly not Angela. If it did make a difference, why would Angela like Victor, the world's biggest pansy, and not even her closest friend…

Koren reddened unconsciously. He remembered when Victor had twisted his ankle… Angela had visited him in the infirmary every day, every hour, on the hour. It had driven Koren mad with jealousy. Angela had taken one look at his embittered face and laughed. "What's wrong with you, Koren?" She'd ask between giggles, and he could say only nothing.

Suddenly, he stopped walking and looked around at his surroundings. He hadn't even realized how far he had been walking…again. But this time, it was even farther, and in a different route. The falling snow had been steadily getting worse, and the wind kicked into action at this moment. He could hardly feel his feet anymore. It seemed that the day had turned into the coldest day of the year, and rapidly into a blizzard. Koren dully wondered if he would stumble upon a blonde-haired, starving orphaned boy in the trees. He cursed quietly to himself for being such a dolt, and turned around to go but when he heard a noise.

It came from the cave at the end – wait, a cave? How far had he gone? Snow caves didn't exist for miles around the castle's perimeter… and most of them were blocked due to winter.

He cautiously edged closer to the entrance, which was perfectly thawed into a round shape. The noise grew louder and stranger as it reached Koren's ears. From inside the cave was emitting an unearthly, high-pitched humming, mixed with a deep, throaty rumble, like an earthquake, but with no shaking. He peered inside, and what he saw numbed his body all over, and not just his toes.

Queen Valda was standing, shoulders back and head thrown back, feet apart. Her arms were in the air, which at the moment happened to be glowing a queer silver blue. Her face, which was in clear sideways view for Koren, was what was most shocking. Her set of deep blue crystals that were renowned and praised in poems all over the world, were a horribly dark, ugly black with miniscule pupils. They were lifeless, soulless, and very much evil-looking.

She opened her mouth to a wide gaping whole, and swallowed a great hollow gasp as her body gave a tremendous twitch, making her shoulders arch back further and her chest further out. Her feet rose to her tippy-toes, with her ankles at a slight angle leaning forward. This made her body physically impossible to stand upright, but somehow, she still was. It gave the appearance that her body was a magnet being pulled in towards the…

"Mana Stone." Koren whispered in awe, finally seeing the large structure that had been partly obscured by the queen before her strange seizure-like fit. The thing began glowing brighter and giving off a very strange smell that resembled smoke with some other foreign material. Had Koren ever been to a volcano, he would've known that that strange unknown smell was brimstone.

Abruptly, the Queen's head jerked back, with her mouth still wide open like a fish. A wind that seemed to come out of nowhere rushed out from all directions and circled the tiny cave, entwining its invisible vines around her. Koren was entrapped in it also, as was evident when he found that he couldn't move from where his feet stood. He tried to yell, but the noise was lost upon the ferocious roar that the wind was causing. And then, all at once, it stopped.

Valda's svelte form fell to the icy ground in a rumpled deadweight heap. Her head reached the ground first, in a sickening crack that made Koren flinch. The Mana Stone resonated with one final glaring light from its makeup, and grew dim once more. Koren moved to help his sovereign up, but shockingly, the seemingly unconscious woman stirred and shifted her position. She groaned loudly, turning over on her side to lay on her stomach, her face contorted; a sign of great ache. Koren felt a duty to help her, but…there was still something wrong. He could feel it.

"What is wrong with…" Valda started to say in a husky whisper, and suddenly screamed in pain. The Mana Stone pulsated with dark energy now. And then the oddest thing happened. Koren felt eyes on him. Not any human eyes, either. But…something was boring into his skull, scanning at every detail of his mind and trying to penetrate the shields that protected them. Before he knew it, his jelly legs had started walking backwards unsteadily, with great effort. Whatever the horrid force was, it stopped paying attention to him once he stepped out of the cave into the bitter cold again. Koren turned around and broke into a clumsy run, with one last glance back at the cave. He saw the Queen still lying immobile on the ground, her lips moving to mouth what seemed to be a spell or something, and then breaking off the sentence from a streak of pain that would make her writhe on the floor. He looked away and ran faster.

"_There_ you are, Koren! Where on earth have you been?" The princess of Altena stood, tapping her foot impatiently as ever, with her arms crossed, standing at the gate of the Altenan castle. Koren passed her by wordlessly without an answer to offer. Angela frowned, both worried at Koren's unusual state, and irked by the palpable brush-off. She scurried to catch up to him again and matched his slow, funeral march pace.

"What's the matter with you?" Angela poked the side of his forehead in a sort of teasing affectionate prod to get his attention, and leaped back at the heat that scorched her finger.

"Fucking horny rabites Kor, you're burning up!" Angela screeched. The surrounding guards widened their eyes, amused and a bit horrified by the young princess's language (should the Queen ever happen to be within hearing distance if Angela cursed like that again, the first ones to be blamed for teaching her such vulgarity would be the castle servants), but stood where they are. It was a bad gamble, for Angela glanced about at them, fire burning in her eyes.

"You incompetent twits!" Angela said angrily. "Someone get help for Koren!" As if her words were a striking blow to him, the said ailing person trembled for a moment, and promptly lost control over his legs and fell over. The princess squealed unhappily and immediately tried to catch him before he fell, her knees buckled at the deadweight burden.

"Someone…help…me!" Angela whispered in a high-pitched voice.

That night, Queen Valda returned to the castle at the dead of the night, her face impassive. As always, the guards who were on duty saluted her, not asking any questions but merely paying their respects. The moment she passed from their sights to retire to her room, however, they fell into flocks of whispers and mumbled rumors of what could've possibly happened. And one of them, a more attentive person than most, voiced that they had observed something that was easy to miss in the darkness on the side of the woman's head.

Dried blood.

The Queen was not a dim woman. Some fools believed so when they would first meet her, seeing her enticing eyes and unearthly beauty and assuming she was dumb as a brick; a shadow of her deceased husband. But no - she was incredibly intelligent and knowledgeable in both the book sense and in the ways of the world – how else would she have landed with the name "Queen of Reason"? And she knew then, standing in front of her large vanity mirror while gingerly tending to her head wound, that she had to stop going to the Mana Stone for strength. She knew now that there was something very, very wrong with it – something that was too different from what was real Mana energy. It had been amazing at first. When the Queen went to the Stone to pray and rejuvenate herself of energy to support her kingdom on a typical day, the energy had nearly overwhelmed her – it was bountiful and invigorating. But as time passed and she went back to it, the energy grew dimmer, weaker, and when sucked dry of strength after a shortening time period, the Queen could not and would not be able to operate and function properly until she visited the Stone once more. It was like some freakish kind of crack, but in the magical sense.

Now, at this point, the "mana" energy wasn't really energy at all. Valda could see that very clearly now. And she made her resolve to not go to it anymore. Somehow, at some point, the Stone had become possessed, or unpurified and tainted – something between the two. Or it was perhaps very well a fraud. Valda knew now that it was nothing like the Mana Stone she remembered. It was dark, and it was evil. She wasn't sure what she would do now without any source of strength, but in time she would figure it out. She always did.

Koren shifted restlessly in his tiny cot inside the infirmary. He was caught in a feverish nightmare.

The nightmare was insane… he was sitting on a bench in the quarry, giving some time for himself, when Angela skipped in towards him, holding some flowers and extending them towards him. He smiled appreciatively at Angela's charming childish offer, and reached for them. His fingers brushed a pink petal, causing the whole bouquet to shatter into little pieces, like glass. The broken flower bits sprinkled down on his arm, cutting into the skin in little slits that trickled blood. He yelled angrily at Angela, but was unable to speak. She stared back woodenly at him, her eyes glassy themselves. He took off running away from her down the outdoor hall, the blood trailing behind him from the streams in his arm. As the red liquid hit the ground, everything surrounding it turned instantly into crystalline ice, including the guards and nobles and students. Horrified at the glassy eyes of his frozen friends, Koren pushed through a set of doors on a random whim and was met with the throne room, with the queen sitting regally. Her deep eyes looked down upon him, and then lolled to the back of her head, her back slumped over. Her face was bloodied, and her eyes stared blankly and soullessly at him.

It was at that horrific point that he awoke. It was still night, and there wasn't any sound at all except the dripping from a nearby faucet. The nurse was inside her room that was located at the end of the infirmary, sleeping soundly as Koren could see through the window. He felt his own head, and was surprised to find it still burning. He felt perfectly fine, in all truth. Shrugging at what was just another bizarre oddity that habitually was occurring to him, Koren threw back his thin brown bedsheets and swung over his legs to the side of the bed. Finding himself still fully clotched, he shuffled around in the dark trying to find his shoes and the near impossible task of putting them on, and then exited the infirmary with stealthy, silent steps. He kept on going until he was fully out of the castle and in the courtyard garden, where lush flowers and bushes rustled in the clean winter wind up until the stone steps and the rusty metal gate were. There, Koren stood for a moment, looking at the star-speckled sky.

'What am I doing out here?' Koren wondered, but he needn't have even thought of the question. He knew why. It was a strange and weird urge, but it was also an insatiable thirst that he knew could not be quenched until he did. So he went on ahead to the rusty gate, which, as always, was open in a friendly gesture that any and all were welcome to the kingdom. The guards were, of course, asleep at their posts – irresponsible but conceivable. He passed by them silently, feeling one foot leaving the lush ever spring grass and the other crushing the newly-fallen white powder ice.

It was a very calm night, now that the snowstorm had passed. He walked through the snow hearing no sign of life except for the crushing of snow between the crooks and edges of his black boots. And when he finally arrived to his point of destination, he felt uneasy, suddenly wanting to turn around. The cave was dark and gloomy, he could see, and offered no light that was shed from the stars and moon. Koren cursed. He hated the dark, and desperately wished now, more than ever, that he had an ounce of magic within him to cast that simple fire spell that Altenan simpletons could cast with ease.

_You could, if your heart wishes it so. _A chilly, dark voice that seemed to be without a corporal body whispered from the depths of the cave.

Koren doubled back, his eyes narrowed in alarm and suspicion. "Who was that?" He said in a cold, steely voice. The disembodied voice seemed to be giggling, if such things could giggle.

_Such a cold voice from so small a boy! But I digress. I am that which can bestow you whatever your heart dreams of._

"Stop talking about my heart. You can't talk about hearts. You're evil. I can tell." Koren said evenly back to whatever it was within the cave.

_Evil shmevil.__ Why do the young ones always think so black-and-white? Did you ever think that the world was a bit more complicated than that? Lines can be blurred, you know._

"I know they can. But in this sense…" Koren paused, and a faint revelation came to him. "You're that thing that hurt Queen Valda!"

_She hurt herself more than I ever did. And you needn't yell so much. I know that you think I'm some sort of underworld scum. You're thinking it so loud, it almost hurts._

Koren started in surprise, and then narrowed his eyes further in slits. 'What do you want of me?'

_There's only a small price to pay for everything you've ever longed for._

For just one tiny insignificant moment, an image of Angela conjured up in his mind that he couldn't stop from coming forth. The thing cackled with amusement.

_No, no, not that, though I suppose it could be done. I'm a bit surprised, though. Why would **she** come before **this**?_

And at once, Koren's head seared with pain as he screamed and stumbled about. He tripped and fell forward. He was going headfirst to the side of the cave – a collective wall of snow and ice and rock. Instinctively, he threw his hands out in front of him and closed his eyes, expecting a painful collision. Instead, he felt his hands warm up a bit and actually felt his body propel back slightly. The reason for which was given when a burst of fire shot out from his hands with such force that it made him step back. The surface that he had been about to crack his head upon was now completely melted away, with nothing but slightly charred rocks. Koren stared aghast at it, awestruck and enthralled.

"How…" Koren trailed off, forgetting about the talking thing in shock.

_You** know **how. And by the look of your face, you like it._

It wasn't even worth lying to himself. Koren did like it. He liked the feeling of being powerful. And he always had. Angela could attest to this. Most certainly Jose could as well. But…he had never actually _been_ powerful in his life. This feeling that he was experiencing now…it was wonderful. And made him feel nothing like he had been before – weak. There was satisfaction to this power. He could do anything, he felt. He could move mountains, stop starvation. A tiny little secret corner of his mind said _kill__ a person_. He ignored the fact that he had even acknowledged that. This slightly arrogant knowledge was unlike anything he had ever felt before, and he wanted to keep it. And, Koren judged, it was most certainly worth the pain.

"What is it?" Koren said in a hushed voice. He meant, of course, whatever the hell the hellish creature wanted. (A/N: Hee! PUNPUNPUNPUNPUN!!)

There was a silence, as if the thing was weighing its choice of words and considering the options. And then…

_Anything that is asked of you.__ Your loyalties. Your soul._

"My…what? But how will-"

_Silly boy, did I not tell you that you need not speak? I say 'soul' in a…metaphorical sense, if you will. You will understand._

Koren grit his teeth. He had never liked being talked to in that way, ever, even now with the sensation of power at his fingertips – and he still didn't, if not moreso. And so, with a slightly rebellious air of cheekiness, he replied vocally.

"Fine."

His vision dimmed, and he knew nothing more for the night.

-----

[1] - … Do I really need to tell you? It's all complete rubbish. There was this one really cool SD3 fic I read with made-up words combined with the Latin root…but I'm far too lazy for that kind of effort. I kind of just went crazy with the 'alt key-three numbers' thing. :B

[2] – Left-handed.

Closing A/N: The idea of a potty-mouthed young Angela makes me giggle. Anyways, for those of you immensely confused, here's the blunt of it. Queen Valda had been attaining energy from what she thought was a Mana Stone for a while, but the Mana Stone's fake. Flawed. It's not the real thing. Valda finally realizes this after a rather peculiar experience that was shared by Koren to an extent, and resolves to stop and figure out another way to help the kingdom. This is a plan that was set up by the Dragon Emperor or his cronies – that lot, whichever you feel like. In a sense, they've been sucking the life out of Valda and in return giving her some weak ammo, making themselves stronger. But now that Valda got sense knocked into her and decides to stop doing her freaky cocaine addiction-ish ritual, they need to come up with another plan. That plan comes in the form of Koren.

Fun Fact: Did You Know? The Mattel Toy Company started to make some Conan the Barbarian action figures, but after viewing the film, the executives realized that they couldn't afford to be associated with a film with such graphic sex and violence. They gave their doll blonde hair, called him "He-man", and thus created He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

2nd Fun Fact: I am so sucked dry of fun facts.

3rd Fun Fact: My underwear is itchy!


End file.
